David Rayome, professor of accounting and finance at NMU, has made three
trips to Bulgaria since March to educate would-be business owners. Rayome
and his partner, a finance professor at the University of Tampa, have
taught more than 200 academics and new business people how to run a business
in a free-market economy. "The only reason anyone buys a business is to
buy the ownership rights to future profits," Rayome says. "This concept
is foreign to most of the students."

The seminars include sessions on macroeconomics, accounting principles
and cash flow analysis, and a final class exercise on financial statement
analysis and business forecasting.

With about an 80 percent annual inflation rate in Bulgaria, a session
on determining a risk-free rate of return and adjusting a business plan
for inflation is very popular with participants, Rayome says. "Until 1989
nobody worried about profits or returns."

Successful completion of the classes is required before prospective
business owners can apply for a government-issued Company Valuation License.
The license is necessary for a Bulgarian to open a business.

Rayome has been impressed with his students' credentials and level of
enthusiasm. Presenting the seminars is like "giving water to a thirsty
person," Rayome says. About 95 percent of these entrepreneurs are engineers
or hold doctorates in science or economics.

Additional visits to Bulgaria may be on the horizon for Rayome. The
Bulgarians have expressed interest other topics, such as small business
management and real estate valuation.

"We're also broadening the views of NMU students," says Rayome, who
brought along a graduate student on his most recent trip. Discussion is
under way to establish a student or faculty exchange program between a
Bulgarian university and NMU.